Sandra Parks wrote that sentence in an essay she entered into the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. writing contest in 2016, the association posted to Facebook. Her essay, titled “Our Truth,” earned third place.

“Sometimes, I sit back and I have to escape from what I see and hear every day,” Parks wrote. “... In the city in which I live, I hear and see examples of chaos almost everyday. Little children are victims of senseless gun violence. There is too much black on black crime. As an African-American, that makes me feel depressed.”

“Sandra Parks, a 13-year-old, went into her bedroom,” he said, according to the station. “She never came out alive. Tragically, her death was caused by someone who just decided to they were going to shoot bullets into her house — and she’s dead.

“ ... I don’t know what they were doing,” the mayor continued, FOX6 reported. “I don’t know that the police know what they were doing. All we know is that a 13-year-old died last night in her bedroom.”

Milwaukee Public Schools said Parks is the seventh child who was enrolled in a district school to have been killed in a homicide this year, according to a statement obtained by the Journal Sentinel.

“As a community, we must commit ourselves to taking whatever action is necessary to keep our children safe,” the statement said.

Police are still investigating whether it was a random or targeted shooting, WPR reported. One man is in custody as a “person of interest,” and another man was brought in for questioning.

At a vigil for Parks, her mom said she wants to get her poems published, CBS58 reported.

“ ... that’s what she wanted and I want to go ahead and do that for her,” she said, according to the station. “I’m going to miss my baby. She was a star... Just don’t forget her please.”

What some call the “castle doctrine” is ensconced in the law: If someone breaks or is breaking into your home, you can shoot them, legally, as long as you “reasonably” believe such force is required to stop the “unlawful entry into or attack upon